


Intimacy

by flyingorfalling



Series: Being Your Mother [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, Mom!Pepper, Post-Endgame, Teenage!Morgan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25530004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingorfalling/pseuds/flyingorfalling
Summary: The one where Pepper and 16-year-old Morgan are talking boys and... other stuff.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Being Your Mother [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1420483
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	Intimacy

**Author's Note:**

> Little Morgan is innocent and sweet and really needs her mom, so that's what my main focus will be, but I just felt like writing an older version of her and it probably won't be the last time I do this. Though this is not how I imagined it to turn out, I still think it's worth publishing, so there you go :')

"Mom? Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Dressed in a gray sarong dress with a bikini underneath, Pepper lay sprawled on a sun lounger by the lake, looking like a swimsuit model with her long legs, reddish hair, and golden skin. The large white linen sunhat she wore shaded the features of her face and her blue eyes were hidden behind mirrored Ray-Bans. At the sound of Morgan's voice, she glanced away from her book to smile at her daughter.

"Not at all, honey," she answered, patting the chair beside her. "Sit."

Morgan put her glass of lemon water down on the small side table, then sat cross-legged on the lounger, with her toes tucked under her.

Pepper lifted her sunglasses and propped them atop her head so she could have an unfettered view. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"That sounds serious," Pepper noted, smiling.

"Well, I can't talk about this with Dad, because if I so much as _mention_ a boy's name he freaks out and threatens to hack the FBI's servers to do a background check," Morgan groaned.

Pepper laughed. "I'm sorry, baby." She gave her daughter an apologetic look, her lips curved into a smile. "Your father is really protective of you. He's been that way ever since you were born."

"Do you think he'll ever _stop_ being that way?" the 16-year-old asked with a mischievous grin.

"No," Pepper answered, chuckling. She cuffed her playfully around the ear. "So this is about a boy?" Raising an eyebrow, she smirked. "Do I know him?"

"He's the one taking me to dancing classes."

Pepper's eyes widened, her jaw dropping. "But you said... I thought you were going with Cassie. Oh, my God, you lied to us!"

Her mother's shocked expression made Morgan laugh. "I _was_ going with Cassie. I mean, at first. But then I met this boy and we started dancing together and—"

"Oh, I wish your dad would take me dancing," Pepper blurted out her thoughts, sighing. She took a sip of her martini and moaned. "Is that too much to ask?"

"I'm sure if Dad could see you right now, he'd do anything for you," the girl remarked and gave her a wink.

Pepper laughed softly at her daughter's comment. "Are you saying my best chance to get him to do what I want is to get naked?"

"Ew, no!" Disgusted, Morgan shook her head, as if trying to shake away the image settling in her mind.

"You're right... If I do _that_ , Tony and I probably end up—"

"Mom, please shut up!" Laughing, Morgan reached over and covered her mother's mouth with her hand, silencing her. "I really need your advice."

"On what?" she asked, curious. "Do you wanna have sex with that boy? 'Cause, you know, I think you shouldn't rush into anything, darling."

Morgan arched an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, and how old were you when you—"

"Sixteen," Pepper said with a chuckle. "It wasn't great, though. I mean, not like the first time with your father. That was—" She halted when she saw her child covering her ears with her hands. Pepper chortled, putting her feet on the ground and directly facing her daughter. She set her book on the side table, leaned her upper body forward, and rested her elbows on her thighs, folding her hands in her lap. "I'm all ears now."

Morgan grinned. "I think in order to have sex with him, I should go out with him first."

"God, you're so smart," she called out. "You really are my daughter."

"Mom, this is serious. Stop being such an idiot," the teenager said, laughing.

With a smile, Pepper took Morgan's hands into hers. Her thumbs spread across her knuckles and slowly and gently rubbed the soft skin. "How about you just ask, hm?" She raised one hand, her fingers grazing her daughter's cheek. "You two have been dancing together for a while now, so I'm pretty sure he'll say yes."

"Really?" She smiled.

"You're Pepper Potts' daughter, babe. He'd be a _fool_ not to go out with you."

"I thought Dad was the narcissist," she quipped.

"I have my moments," Pepper said proudly, joking, as she took off the sunhat and ran her free hand through her tousled ginger hair. "So, that guy... Does he have a name? What does he look like? Is he cute? I'm sure he must be handsome. I think the fact he can dance makes him really sexy."

"That sounds so gross considering you're, like, sixty years old." Morgan shuddered at the idea of her mother finding her crush attractive, and laughed.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ old _,"_ Pepper complained. "Yet." She grinned. "But, you know, I just think, even at a young age, it's nice to have someone who's—"

"Sexy?" Morgan teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Attractive in a physical way, yes... even though I think real beauty is only found in the heart... And who excites you and makes you feel alive just by the way they pay attention, take your hand... and the way their eyes meet and hold yours... the cool and confident way they kiss you. Confidence is _really_ sexy actually." Pepper smirked. "And you know your dad has _loads_ of it."

"I noticed," Morgan said, amused.

"He may be an old man now... well, old _er_... but he's still incredibly sexy."

"Here we go again," Morgan mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Go on," she said with a wide grin.

Pepper eyed her suspiciously. "Are you making fun of me?"

"I think you should ask him out," the teen answered, chuckling.

"Who?"

"Mom, all you do is talk about that guy. You must really like him, so I think you should ask him out." She paused. "And please do not get naked in front of him. That might be too much."

Pepper grinned. "It's Tony Stark, though. I think he's seen a lot worse."

"Yeah, but you'd embarrass the hell outta me and you don't wanna embarrass your daughter, do you, mother?" Morgan snitched the hat from her and put it on her own head. "You want my advice?"

"Only if it's good advice," Pepper joked, trying to keep a straight face.

"Just be yourself," Morgan replied. "You're Pepper freaking Potts, so you already have _a_ _lot_ going for you."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"Should I bring condoms?"

"Absolutely not." Morgan shook her head vigorously. "Don't sell yourself short. Let him grovel. If he wants to have sex with you, he has to _earn_ it."

The smirk on Pepper's face grew. "Is that how it works these days? No more sex on the first date?"

"Mhm-hm. You're practically a dinosaur, so I'm teaching you a few important things here."

"Thank you, honey. That's really sweet." Judging by the smirk on her daughter's face, she found it as amusing as she did. They looked at each other, clamped their hands over their mouths and burst into laughter, anyway. "You know, this makes me really comfortable about you going out on a date," Pepper admitted.

"How can you be so sure I wasn't joking?" Morgan asked, smirking.

"Because you're my daughter, and you value yourself too much to go out and... do... _that_."

Morgan smiled. "To be honest, mom, I think I'm actually a bit scared of intimacy. Not so much of the physical kind, you know, but the emotional one. I just have such a hard time to… be vulnerable... open up. I don't know. Like, sometimes I feel like I'm hiding myself in fear of being fully seen. Is that a… Is that a bad thing?"

"Well, you certainly didn't have a problem with being, um, _out-there_ when you were little." Pepper chuckled. "But no, sweetheart, it isn't," she assured her. "It just means that you're cautious and care a lot about protecting your heart." Smiling lovingly, her voice became soft and mellow, sweeter. "Your dad's the same. I mean, he's changed but... in some ways, he's still that guy. So, whenever he tells me how he really feels... opens up to me… it still surprises me sometimes. It touches my heart deeply, and that can't really be a bad thing, right?"

She looked at her daughter and saw the eyes of the man she loved looking back at her. She was so strikingly beautiful, inside and out. One of those rare beauties who did not fully comprehend her allure. A teenager now but forever her baby girl.

"Now, I'm not gonna pretend that you don't have to learn how to let people in... how to trust someone, someday, because I've experienced firsthand what keeping it all in does to a person, but you do that in your own time, Morgan. You choose when you are ready to share. Don't let anyone do that for you." Pepper gently stroked her arm. "You know, I was really hurt for a while when your father didn't let me see what was really going on with him. I was hurt, because I knew how much _he_ was hurting. I wanted to help him. I knew pushing him wouldn't get us anywhere, so I just waited. And girl, did I _wait_!" She laughed out loud. "I waited so long for him to understand the importance of sharing. How sharing your fears with your partner means that you share the burden, too. But it was all worth it in the end, because he opened up to me on his own terms... for _himself_... not because I pressured him to do it. He just realized he could show himself to me, show me his truth, and that was really touching."

"And what did you do?"

"I just hugged him. Let him know he was safe with me," Pepper answered with a soft smile, and deep emotion in her voice. "There's a reason being physically intimate with someone is a lot easier for most people than emotionally. It takes a lot of courage." She paused. "It took _me_ a lot of courage to tell your dad how scared I was of losing him for good after he..." She swallowed hard. "After he was out of the coma and back home with us. I didn't wanna burden him with my feelings, not after all the terrible things he went through, but, you know, what I realized was that _I_ went through it all too... _just_ like he did... only in a different way. And when those nightmares didn't stop, and I was literally becoming sick with fear, I realized the only way I could be myself again, especially around him, was to open up and let him in. So, you see, intimacy is hard, and it's difficult, but it's also an anchor for when the going gets tough and the constant reassurance that you aren't alone." Smiling, Pepper reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind Morgan's ear. "But you, my darling daughter, shouldn't even be worrying about intimacy at such a young age." She brushed her lips across her temple and kissed her there. "Just have fun, okay? Enjoy yourself."

When then their eyes met, Morgan smiled at her. “I'll do my best."

"Great," Pepper replied, grinning.

"Is it different, though?"

"Is what different?"

"With dad's arm... Do you feel... Is it... I don't know... Strange? Maybe?"

"You mean when we..."

"I mean in general but, yes, that too. Were you scared it would change the way you feel?"

Pepper nodded. "I was, but then we talked about it before... being intimate… and it made me feel less scared. It did feel different at first, though, you know, with the cold metal. But it also reminded me of how lucky I was to even be able to share that intimacy with him. And your father has always been so gentle and soft with his touch, it almost felt like his arm was still made of flesh. Now that he uses nano tech, his touch is just... warmer... in some places."

"Oh, my God!" Morgan screwed up her face. "I need you to stop right there... TMI."

"You asked, baby." Laughing, Pepper emptied her drink. Then she looked at her daughter with a big grin. "Care for a swim?"

"Just... one more question." Morgan shifted uneasily in her seat. "If... What if I'd go out with a girl?"

"Honey, the idea of you dating someone is already making your dad freak out. I don't think he could handle it if you dated two people at the same time."

Morgan laughed. "No, I mean... If that boy were a girl would it bother you?"

"Are you saying you may be..." The young girl nodded. "And you really think that'd bother me?"

"I don't know." She paused, staring long and hard at her mother. Then she shook her head. "No."

"You're right. It doesn't," Pepper said with a smile. "Because you can't choose who you fall in love with. I mean look at us... your dad and I... Don't think for a second that I chose to fall in love with him. That was beyond my control." She laughed softly. "But I _chose_ to keep loving him when our world was falling apart 'cause of some of the things he did. And I don't regret a single thing. I got to marry the _love_ of my _life_." Her own words made her emotional. "And if the love of _your_ life turns out to be a woman, I couldn't be happier for you." Pepper cupped her daughter's cheeks. "I just want you to find someone who loves you the way your father loves _me_." Her eyes were glassy with tears, as she whispered, "Completely and forever."

"The way _you_ love me?" Morgan said quietly.

"No one can _ever_ love you the way _I_ love you, ma petite sirène. Not a single soul."

"Not even Daddy?" She grinned.

"I outlove that man any day of the week." Pepper's smirk morphed into a soft smile. As she looked at her daughter, she saw stop-motion flashes of Morgan's life from newborn to now. It made her ache with indescribable love. That girl had no idea how she adored her then and still adored her and would adore her forever and ever. Just thinking about it made Pepper cry.

Morgan chuckled, then stared at her in silence for a moment, just watching her stare back, smiling through tears. She couldn't remember ever seeing her mother cry. Not once. Not ever. But she was crying now. Because of her. And it touched her heart to see the emotion in her eyes, to see just how loved she really was. It touched her feelings where they were most vulnerable. Suddenly she felt tears trickling down her cheeks, and she figured, this right here, that was real intimacy.

"I love you so much, Mom… Completely and forever," she whispered, and placed her mouth next to hers, kissing her wet cheeks, before throwing her arms around Pepper's neck and embracing her in a tight hug.


End file.
